Where to request records and election proposals
A handy guide of where to send your records requests and info on the Maricopa County Recorder's proposed election changes.
The times they are a-changin’. Bob Dylan’s words are immortal and even more true during the changing of the guards in most statewide offices.
We have a new governor, secretary of state, attorney general and superintendent, which means each office will likely be vastly different than their predecessor and with each change means new bureaucrats to get used to.
While we may elect the heads of each office, we don’t get a say in the everyday people who hold top positions to get things done even if we pay their six-figure salaries.
So because we are all trying to learn who is working in which administration, I wanted to put together this list that I will update periodically on where you can send your own records request per agency.
I already wrote about the Arizona Department of Education and its new senior staff, which you can read here.
But here is where you can send records requests –– just make sure to acknowledge it’s a non commercial request (as long as you don’t plan to sell the documents) and also check out this handy public records zine from the Arizona Agenda to aid your requesting desires.
Governor’s Office
The Hobbs administration said it wants to prioritize transparency and accountability during its tenure which would be a far cry from its predecessor. The first step for them was to set up a public records email address in records@az.gov. I was told they are working on a hiring a public records clerk to manage requests as well.
Secretary of State’s Office
The SOS Office has a general counsel who works on public records requests and has been super responsive to me. But almost always I’ll send requests through the communications director. Now under Secretary Adrian Fontes it’s Matt Grodsky, who was a former Arizona Democratic Party spokesman and a campaign consultant for Fontes and others. You can send records requests to his SOS email at mgrodsky@azsos.gov. Or fill out a public records request form here.
Attorney General’s Office
I’m still trying to figure out who all is on staff under AG Kris Mayes. I’ve heard First Amendment attorney Dan Barr is Mayes’ chief deputy and Amy Love, who used to work for the Arizona Supreme Court and Mark Kelly will be her chief of staff. But the easiest way to send records requests is through their portal.
Arizona Treasurer
This is one agency that has never fulfilled a single request I’ve made since August. It’s also the only statewide official serving a second term. I was told to send records through their portal, but maybe go in expecting to never get a record back.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
Doug Nick is the communications director and you can message him your requests. He was rather helpful at ADOT before joining back with Tom Horne. He’s at Doug.Nick@azed.gov, but I’ve also sent requests through their government portal and have found a lot of success. I will say though, Richie Taylor, Kathy Hoffman’s communications director for four years was one of the most competent and professional people working in state government. It’s big shoes to fill.
Arizona House and Senate
Recently, I have found the legislative rules/records attorneys have been some of the most helpful government workers.
In the House, it’s Justin Riches handling requests at jriches@azleg.gov and in the Senate is Pete Galvan, pgalvan@azleg.gov, who is pretty incomparable. Both are holdovers from previous administrations which I have to say was a good decision in each chamber.
Maricopa County
For requests through the Board of Supervisors, County Recorder, County Attorney , or other agencies within Maricopa County.
City of Phoenix
For the main city government you can request here; and for fire/police you can request at the respective links.
I will update this with state agency portals or email addresses as well as other municipalities and counties.
County Recorder Stephen Richer releases his proposals for election law changes.
Pretty self-explanatory, but take a look at the election law changes Maricopa County Recorder Richer, a Republican, is proposing this year. The first of which is getting faster results, but he acknowledges the current system isn’t faulty. He says faster results or “95% on election night” will help with voter confidence. If such a thing even exists at this point remains to be seen, but getting accurate results at a more timely pace is something I think most people would get behind. The real question is will Gov. Katie Hobbs, because for the next four years, her opinion is really the one that matters and being a former secretary of state means she’s coming at the issue from an election official’s perspective rather than only a politician.
For what it’s worth, Richer’s solution (which he’s talked about publicly before) is to eliminate late-early ballots altogether.
The cleanest solution to “late early ballots” is to require all early ballots be dropped off by the close of the statutorily designated early voting period – 5:00 PM on the Friday before Election Day. Any voters who want to vote after 5:00 PM on Friday could either drop off their early ballot at the county recorder’s office or other limited designated locations, or vote in-person on Election Day (check in, get new ballot printed, fill out ballot, and feed into tabulator). Early ballots returned through the United States Post Office would still be accepted, as they currently are, until 7:00 PM on Election Day.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I actually mostly agree with this proposal. There were 290,000 late-early ballots in 2022. That’s an enormous number and I’m sure a large portion held onto their ballots because of the “vigilantes” camping out at ballot drop-off locations.
Check out all of Richer’s proposals here.